ELEKTRA RICHARD STRAUSS KARL BOHM LEONIE RYSANEK

ELEKTRA FALLS DEAD AFTER THE DANCE MACABRE OPERA IN ONE ACT AFTER THE GREEK TRAGEDY ILEKTRA BY EVRIPIDIS AND SOFOKLIS.

Actors: Leonie Rysanek, Astrid Varnay, Catarina Ligendza, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hans Beirer

The plot of Elektra is based upon the great Greek tragedy of the same name by the tragedian Sophocles. The unrelenting gloom and horror that permeate the original play produce, in the hands of Hofmannsthal and Strauss, a drama whose sole theme is revenge. Klytaemnestra (Clytemnestra), helped by her paramour Aegisth (Aegisthus), has secured the murder of her husband, Agamemnon, and now is afraid that her guilt will be discovered by her children, Elektra (Electra), Chrysothemis, and their banished brother Orest (Orestes). Elektra, who is the personification of the passionate lust for vengeance, tries to persuade her timid sister to kill Klytaemnestra and Aegisth. Before the plan is carried out, Orest, who had been reported as dead, arrives and, upon being told the truth by Elektra, determines upon revenge for his father's death. He kills Klytaemnestra and Aegisth; Elektra, in an ecstatic dance of triumph, falls dead in front of her horror-stricken attendants.

WIENER PHILHARMONIKER DIRIGENT KARL BOHM